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“The thing about celebrities is that most of them are obsessed with food and dieting. Michael Phelps, for example, has one of the most documented diets on the planet.”

Phelps’s 500-millilitre flask will be filled with daily doses of the chemical equivalent of a dozen eggs, two pounds of pasta and “much more chlorine than you or I are exposed to,” Keats said.

For the American president, a day’s nutrients will vary. The White House’s chef has reported a diet of fish and chicken, brown rice, green beans and other healthy fare, but on the campaign trail Obama will down more hotdogs and chili.

Keats is still researching how to germinate an epigenetic clone of Oprah and J.Lo, although he’s pretty certain the Winfrey flask will get fed a different fad diet each week.

“She has had many different diets and most of them have names,” says Keats. “Her current diet is on her own website.”

Given this isn’t conventional scientific cloning, the results “won’t look like them or sing or swim like them. The expression of genes is what matters rather than the genes in their own right.”

Keats is careful to note his project “is all completely unauthorized” by the five famous figures he has selected.

What would he do if one of them walks into the gallery? “I have absolutely no idea.”

Then again, “They might be a little bit intimidated in that they’re not so unique.”

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